Will Chinese President Xi Jinping be given the formal title of ‘the people’s leader’?
- The increasing use of the phrase by state media and senior officials has fuelled speculation it will be made official later this year
- The most recent use of the phrase was in a speech by a top security official that said safeguarding Xi’s absolute leadership was the top priority
In one of the latest examples, Chen Yixin, secretary general of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, urged all security and judicial forces to make the safeguarding of Xi’s absolute leadership their utmost political task in a front-page article for the Communist Party newspaper Study Times.
“Our party and our country are so lucky to have general secretary Xi Jinping as the core of the party, the people’s leader and the commander of the military. He … has the support of the people,” Chen wrote in an article based on a speech he gave to law enforcement and judicial officials on July 7.
“We must wholeheartedly rally around the core and love the core,” he added.
Previously only Mao Zedong, the “great leader, and his successor Hua Guofeng, the “wise leader”, have been officially given the title of “leader”. The practice fell out of favour following Hua’s brief, ill-fated time at the top.